The  Presbyterian 
Church 

and  the 

Great  Commission 


An  Address  Delivered  at  the 
184th  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A., 
Des  Moines ,  Iowa,  May  25th,  1922, 
by  Rev.  William  P.  Schell,  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 


The  Board  oi  Foreign  Missions 
of  the 

Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
156  Fifth  Avenue.  New  York  City 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 

AND 

THE  GREAT  COMMISSION 

The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Mis¬ 
sions — your  Board  of  Foreign  Missions — 
presents  its  85th  Annual  Report  to  this 
Assembly.  The  85th  year  which  has  just 
closed,  a  year  of  financial  depression  and 
unusual  difficulties,  was  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  and  encouraging  in  the  entire  his¬ 
tory  of  the  work.  The  Board’s  receipts,  in¬ 
cluding  the  gifts  of  the  Woman’s  Board, 
amounted  to  $4,067,758.24.  The  Board  closed 
the  year  with  all  bills  paid  and  with  a  sur¬ 
plus  of  $66,075.52,  which  has  been  applied 
to  the  old  deficit,  reducing  the  latter  to  $129,- 
000.  On  April  1st,  1919,  the  financial  con¬ 
dition  of  the  Board  showed  an  accumulated 
war  deficit  of  $620,000.  It  will  thus  be  noted 
that  during  the  past  three  years  the  Board 
has  not  only  conducted  the  work  as  the  Agent 
of  the  Church  without  incurring  any  new 
deficit,  but  has  also  reduced  its  old  deficit 
by  nearly  $500,000. 

The  encouraging  record  of  the  year  just 
ended  was  largely  due  to  three  factors:  (1) 
The  receipts  from  living  donors  held  up 
unusually  well.  For  the  regular  work  the 
decrease  was  only  $130,000,  the  balance 
being  for  property  and  equipment;  (2)  The 
Woman’s  Board  broke  all  records  by 
securing  $110,000  more  than  during  the 
previous  year;  (3)  The  total  cost  of  the  work 
was  less  than  had  been  anticipated  because 
of  the  steady  decline  in  foreign  exchange. 
During  the  past  two  or  three  months  it  has 

1 


been  necessary  for  the  Board  to  increase  its 
budget  by  over  $400,000  to  care  for  increases 
in  the  salaries  of  missionaries,  allowances  for 
the  children  of  missionaries,  and  continua¬ 
tion  of  the  salaries  of  the  veterans  in  the  serv¬ 
ice,  and  for  other  emergency  expenditures. 
This  means  that  during  the  fiscal  year  we 
have  just  entered  it  will  be  necessary  for  the 
Church  to  contribute  a  minimum  of  nearly 
$500,000  more  for  its  regular  Foreign  Mis¬ 
sion  work  than  was  required  during  the  fiscal 
year  1921-22. 

The  General  Assembly  at  Winona  Lake,  a 
year  ago,  authorized  the  Board  to  raise  a 
Memorial  Fund  in  memory  of  the  late  Secre¬ 
tary  Abram  Woodruff  Halsey,  D.D.,  who  had 
served  the  Board  with  conspicuous  devotion 
and  success  for  22  years — this  Fund  to  amount 
to  $100,000,  and  to  be  expended  for  a  Mis¬ 
sion  Press  in  West  Africa,  a  memorial  build¬ 
ing  in  connection  with  the  Mission  Press  in 
Syria,  and  for  a  memorial  building  in  Mexico. 
We  are  happy  to  be  able  to  report  that  cash 
and  pledges  have  been  received  covering  the 
entire  amount,  and  that  word  has  already 
been  sent  to  Africa  to  commence  the  con¬ 
struction  of  the  Halsey  Memorial  Press.  The 
other  buildings  in  Syria  and  Mexico  will  be 
constructed  as  rapidly  as  the  pledges  are  paid. 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH  ON  THE  FOREIGN  FIELD 

Encouraging  as  is  the  financial  statement, 
it  is  more  important  and  more  encouraging 
to  note  the  extraordinary  success  of  your  mis¬ 
sionaries  in  the  loyal  and  self-sacrificing 
prosecution  of  the  missionary  enterprise. 

2 


There  are  today  more  than  25,000  Pro¬ 
testant  missionaries  making  Christ  known  in 
non-Christian  lands.  Compare  these  figures 
and  results  with  the  beginning  of  the  enter¬ 
prise  when  our  Lord  sent  out  twelve  men  and 
said  to  them:  “As  ye  go,  preach,  saying  ‘The 
Kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the 
sick,  raise  the  dead,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast 
out  demons;  freely  ye  have  received,  freely 
give’;”  and  when,  on  a  later  occasion  He 
gave  them  the  great  commission  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature  and  to  make 
disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

What  is  the  aim  of  Foreign  Missions  as 
recognized  by  the  Presbyterian  Church?  If 
you  will  look  at  the  charter  of  the  Board, 
you  will  find  that  it  was  organized  by  the 
General  Assembly  “for  the  purpose  of  estab¬ 
lishing  and  conducting  Christian  Missions 
among  the  unevangelized  or  Pagan  nations, 
and  the  general  diffusion  of  Christianity.”  In 
June,  1920,  83  years  later,  the  Board  called 
a  Post  War  Conference  at  Princeton,  New 
Jersey,  which  was  attended  by  officers  and 
members  of  the  Board  and  the  six  Women’s 
Boards  of  Foreign  Missions;  members  of 
the  Executive  Commission  of  the  General 
Assembly;  members  of  the  Chosen  (Korea) 
Commission,  and  official  delegates,  both  men 
and  women,  from  all  of  our  Missions  in  the 
15  countries  in  which  the  Presbyterian 
Church  is  working.  At  that  Conference,  by 
unanimous  vote,  the  following  definition  of 
the  aim  of  Foreign  Missions  was  adopted,  and 

3 


has  since  been  approved  by  all  of  our  27 
Missions: 

“The  supreme  and  controlling  aim  of  For¬ 
eign  Missions  is  to  make  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  known  to  all  men  as  their  Divine 
Saviour  and  to  persuade  them  to  become  His 
disciples;  to  gather  those  disciples  into  Chris¬ 
tian  Churches  which  shall  be  self -propagating, 
self-supporting  and  self-governing;  to  coop¬ 
erate  as  long  as  necessary  with  these  churches 
in  the  evangelizing  of  their  countrymen  and 
in  bringing  to  bear  on  all  human  life  the 
spirit  and  principles  of  Christ.,, 

This  stands  today,  at  the  end  of  85  years, 
as  the  unanimous  official  expression  of  the 
missions  and  the  Board  of  a  position  which 
has  also  been  endorsed  on  more  than  one 
occasion  by  the  General  Assembly. 

THE  OFFERING  OF  YOUTH 

One  of  the  mysteries  in  the  eyes  of  skeptics 
and  one  of  the  great  joys  in  the  heart  of  the 
Church  is  to  note  how,  year  after  year,  thou¬ 
sands  of  young  men  and  women,  leaving 
everything  behind  them,  apply  for  service 
for  life  in  foreign  lands.  Do  you  know  in 
what  numbers  they  do  apply?  During  1921-22, 
515  candidates,  in  addition  to  those  already 
listed,  began  correspondence  in  regard  to 
missionary  service.  Some  failed  to  meet  the 
standards  which  the  Board  requires.  With 
others  correspondence  was  continued  as  to 
further  preparation.  From  those  immediately 
available  106  were  commissioned. 

How  do  you  account  for  this  wonderful 
offering  of  young  life?  Why  do  they  do  it? 

4 


For  the  fun  of  it?  For  adventure?  To  see 
the  world?  To  teach  Mathematics?  So  some 
would  fain  believe.  No;  that  is  not  why 
they  go.  Last  Summer,  at  the  Synod  of  Cali¬ 
fornia,  I  asked  a  group  of  missionaries  there 
present  to  state  the  reasons  which  had 
prompted  them  to  volunteer  as  missionaries. 
Among  the  reasons  given  these  were  the  first: 
The  Great  Commission  of  our  Lord;  and  the 
need  of  the  world  for  which  He  died.  There 
are  over  60  missionaries  in  attendance  at  this 
General  Assembly,  some  of  them  as  Commis¬ 
sioners  from  foreign  Presbyteries,  and  others 
as  delegates  from  Missions  or  as  visitors.  If 
there  were  time  to  summon  them  to  the  plat¬ 
form  and  to  ask  them  to  state  why  they  are 
missionaries,  they  would  tell  the  same  story. 

The  missionaries  know  perfectly  well  that 
“other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that 
which  is  laid,  even  Jesus  Christ.”  The  Mis¬ 
sionaries  know  that  “there  is  no  other  name 
given  under  heaven  among  men”  by  which 
men  can  be  saved.  The  greatest  blessing  that 
can  fall  upon  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  home 
which  commissioned  these  missionaries  and 
sent  them  out  will  come  when  the  Church 
believes  as  implicitly  and  wholeheartedly  in 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  power  as 
do  the  missionaries;  and  when  it  is  possessed 
and  moved  by  the  same  spirit  of  unselfish 
consecration  to  Him  and  His  cause. 

A  LOOK  AT  THE  WORK 

The  year  just  completed  was  a  year  of  en¬ 
couraging  evangelistic  results  on  the  Foreign 
Field,  20,145  non-Christians  having  been  won 

5 


to  Jesus  Christ  and  received  into  the  Church 
on  confession  of  faith.  This  represents  a  net 
gain  of  3,000  for  the  year.  In  the  foreign 
held  the  evangelistic  results  last  year  repre¬ 
sented  a  larger  number  of  accessions  to  the 
Church  than  we  had  all  told  in  1882,  after 
the  first  50  years  of  our  Foreign  Mission 
work. 

When  our  distinguished  Moderator  was 
nominated  on  the  opening  day  of  this  As¬ 
sembly,  the  strength  and  influence  of  the 
Synod  of  Pennsylvania  were  pictured  id 
graphic  and  striking  terms.  Every  word  in 
praise  of  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania  was  well 
deserved,  for  that  Synod  represents  a  larger 
number  of  Presbyterian  Churches,  Presby¬ 
terian  Church  members,  Presbyterian  min¬ 
isters  and  Presbyterian  wealth  than  does  any 
other  Synod  of  the  entire  Church;  but  in 
spite  of  that  fact,  in  1920-21  the  number  of 
converts  received  by  our  missionaries  was  a 
greater  number  than  were  received  that  year 
by  the  powerful  Synod  of  Pennsylvania — 
although  the  work  of  our  churches  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania  was  not  carried  on  among  heathen 
people  and  was  supported  by  a  hundred  in¬ 
fluences  which  the  Missions  lack,  and  although 
the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania  had  three  times 
as  many  ordained  men  as  we  have  ordained 
foreign  missionaries  and  spent  nearly  half  as 
much  again  on  its  work. 

The  Mass  Movements  towards  Christianity 
are  not  taking  place  in  America  nor  in  the 
home  Church.  They  are  taking  place  in 
Africa,  India,  Korea  and  in  parts  of  China. 
Some  of  the  most  encouraging  revivals  today 

6 


are  in  Latin  America  and  in  Moslem  lands, 
and  the  ice  is  breaking  in  Japan. 

The  largest  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
world  is  not  in  America.  It  is  in  West 
Africa,  at  Elat,  and  it  numbers  over  6,000 
communicant  members.  Including  the  mem¬ 
bership  of  the  affiliated  churches,  the  total 
membership  of  the  Elat  Church  is  16,000 — 
and  that  church  is  not  yet  thirty  years  old. 
Less  than  20  years  ago  the  Board  seriously 
considered  the  question  of  abandoning  the 
work  in  West  Africa  because  of  the  meagre 
results.  Today  the  total  enrollment  of  ac¬ 
tual  church  members  is  over  25,000.  The 
total  Christian  constituency  of  our  Church 
is  placed  at  62,000.  Efulen  has  7,000  Chris¬ 
tians  with  only  one  minister;  Lolodorf  has 
10,000  Christians  with  only  one  minister; 
Metet  has  6,000  Christians  with  only  one 
minister;  Foulassi  has  11,000  Christians  with 
only  two  ministers;  Elat  has  16,000  Chris¬ 
tians  with  only  two  ministers;  Sakbayeme 
has  12,000  Christians  with  only  one  minister. 

This  General  Assembly  has  had  the  high 
honor  and  privilege  of  welcoming  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  Moderator  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan,  Dr.  Masahisa  Uemura,  in  celebra¬ 
tion  of  the  50th  anniversary  of  that  Church. 
The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  the  result  of 
the  work  of  the  missionaries  and  Japanese 
Christians  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed 
Churches,  has  82  self-supporting  churches, 
146  mission  churches,  33,668  adult  communi¬ 
cants,  and  more  than  double  that  number  of 
adherents.  The  larger  Church  of  Christ  in 
Japan,  including  all  denominations,  has 

7 


137,000  communicants,  and  has  grown  to  such 
an  extent  that  today  there  are  1,224  organ¬ 
ized  churches  of  which  359  are  self-support¬ 
ing.  There  are  besides,  schools  for  boys  and 
girls,  from  kindergarten  to  university;  hos¬ 
pitals,  orphanages,  and  other  forms  of  phil¬ 
anthropic  work  of  the  Church  and  Missions. 

The  first  missionary  entered  Korea  in  1884. 
Ten  years  later  there  were  only  140  believers 
in  the  whole  country.  Now  there  are  472 
Protestant  missionaries  working  in  Korea. 
The  total  number  of  baptized  adults  is  92,000 
and  there  are  over  35,000  catechumens  pre¬ 
paring  for  baptism.  There  are  more  than 
240,000  Christian  adherents  associated  with 
the  Protestant  Churches.  The  total  contribu¬ 
tions  of  these  Christians  were  $465,560  U.  S. 
Gold — a  sum  equivalent  to  1,600,000  days’ 
labor  or  $4,500,000  from  3,000  American 
Christian  Churches. 

THE  WORK  IN  DETAIL 

When  our  Lord  sent  out  His  Twelve 
Apostles  He  said  to  them :  “As  ye  go,  preach, 
saying,  ‘The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand.’ 
Heal  the  sick,  raise  the  dead,  cleanse  the 
lepers,  cast  out  demons;  freely  ye  have  re¬ 
ceived,  freely  give.”  In  another  command — 
the  great  Commission,  He  told  them  to  teach 
— to  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations. 

The  methods  of  work  of  your  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  are  based  on  Christ’s  com¬ 
mand  to  “preach,  and  heal,  and  teach.” 
What  is  the  proper  relation  of  these  methods 
to  one  another  and  to  the  main  purpose  of 
evangelism?  We  quote  from  the  Board’s 
Manual: 


8 


“The  spiritual  aspects  of  the  missionary 
work  are  entitled  to  the  foremost  place  in 
the  thoughts  and  affections  of  all  who  en¬ 
gage  in  it.  Applicants  for  appointment  as 
missionaries  should  set  before  their  minds 
the  authority,  glory  and  grace  of  Christ  and 
the  honor  of  His  Name  in  the  salvation  of 
souls  as  their  great  aim.  They  should  offer 
their  services  in  the  work  of  spreading  the 
Gospel  under  a  sense  of  being  divinely  called 
to  it,  and  they  should  seek  their  reward  in  our 
blessed  Lord’s  approval.” 

“The  great  end  of  missionary  life  and  serv¬ 
ice  is  the  preaching  of  Christ  Crucified .  All 
forms  of  work  must  be  subordinate  to  this 
end,  and  all  methods  of  missionary  effort, 
medical,  educational,  industrial,  etc.,  will  be 
sanctioned  and  supported  by  the  Board  only 
as  they  contribute  to  a  wider  and  more  effec¬ 
tive  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  and  give 
promise  of  vital  missionary  results.” 

Let  us  now  look  at  these  forms  of  work 
in  turn,  saving  the  first  till  the  last. 

••AS  YE  GO,  HEAL” 

Last  year  the  Presbyterian  Church  sup¬ 
ported  191  hospitals  and  dispensaries  in  for¬ 
eign  lands,  in  which  704,026  individual  treat¬ 
ments  were  given  in  the  Name  of  Christ.  If 
the  Church  had  done  nothing  more  than  bring 
physical  relief  to  nearly  three-quarters  of  a 
million  suffering  bodies,  it  would,  to  that 
extent,  have  obeyed  the  command  of  the 
Great  Physician  Who,  Himself,  went  about 
healing  suffering  bodies,  with  no  thought  of 
reward  and  many  times  with  no  apparent 
spiritual  results.  Out  of  ten  lepers  healed 

9 


by  Him  only  one  returned  to  give  thanks, 
and  many  patients  treated  by  Him  never  ac¬ 
cepted  Him  at  all. 

But  our  hospitals  are  turning  many  not 
only  to  the  Great  Physician  of  the  body  but 
to  the  Great  Physician  of  the  soul.  In  scores 
of  cases  they  are  reaching  for  Christ  persons 
who  cannot  be  reached  for  Him  in  any  other 
way,  and  in  all  cases  they  open  the  way  for 
the  evangelist. 

The  Severance  Union  Medical  College 
and  Hospital  in  Seoul,  Korea,  stands  as 
strongly  for  evangelism  as  for  intellectual 
training  and  physical  welfare.  The  charter 
as  a  medical  college  lays  down  as  its  aim  the 
carrying  on  of  its  work  on  Christian  prin¬ 
ciples;  it  insists  that  every  member  of  its 
Board  of  Managers  and  every  teacher  shall  be 
an  active  Christian,  and  every  one  of  its  nearly 
100  graduates  has  been  a  Christian.  The 
hospital  evangelist  preached  last  year  to 
16,820  men,  of  whom  4,424  decided  to  become 
believers.  The  Hospital  Bible  Woman 
preached  to  3,826  women,  of  whom  189  de¬ 
cided  to  believe.  The  doctors  and  nurses 
teach  in  Sunday  Schools  in  connection  with 
the  city  churches. 

As  the  patients  come  to  the  hospitals  to  be 
healed  and  as  they  await  their  turn  to  be 
treated,  the  missionaries  and  native  workers 
circulate  among  them  and  tell  them  the  Old, 
Old  Story,  and  dispose  of  copies  of  the  Bible 
or  the  New  Testament.  As  one  of  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  from  Teheran,  Persia,  wrote:  “The 
Hospital  seems  to  me  one  of  the  biggest  op¬ 
portunities  in  the  evangelistic  line.” 

10 


One  day,  in  the  Autumn  of  1919,  it  was  my 
great  privilege  to  baptize  the  baby  boy  of 
two  of  our  missionaries  in  one  of  the  most 
attractive  Mission  Compounds  in  China.  It 
was  a  beautiful  day  with  the  sun  shining 
through  the  trees,  and,  gathered  on  the  lawn 
in  a  circle  were  the  missionaries  and  their 
families,  the  doctors  and  nurses  from  the  hos¬ 
pital,  the  Bible  women,  native  pastors  and 
elders.  In  the  administration  of  the  rite  of 
baptism  I  was  assisted  by  two  Chinese  Chris¬ 
tians,  one  standing  at  my  left  holding  the 
baptismal  bowl;  and  the  other  at  my  right 
to  offer  prayer.  I  learned  later  that  the  man 
who  held  the  baptismal  bowl  was  a  converted 
opium  victim  who  had  been  won  to  Christ  by 
a  Christian  worker  in  the  hospital,  and  that 
the  man  at  the  right  had  been  a  drunkard  and 
had  been  saved  by  the  personal  work  of  some 
devout  Christian  in  the  streets  of  the  city. 
The  thought  came  over  me,  what  could  be 
more  appropriate  than  that  a  representative 
of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  from  Amer¬ 
ica  should  baptize  the  child  of  Christian  mis¬ 
sionaries  from  America,  in  a  Mission  Com¬ 
pound  in  China,  and  that  he  should  be  as¬ 
sisted  in  that  ceremony  by  two  men  in  whose 
lives  had  been  worked  out  the  miracle  of 
Christianity? 

“AS  YE  GO,  TEACH ” 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  always  em¬ 
phasized  the  need  of  Christian  education,  and 
has  insisted  on  the  educational  training  of 
its  leaders.  The  growth  and  influence  of  the 
Church  in  the  educational  field  in  the  United 
States  is  evidenced  by  the  large  number  of 

11 


Presbyterian  Colleges.  This  growth  and  edu¬ 
cational  leadership  is  paralleled  on  the  for¬ 
eign  field.  Last  year,  in  foreign  lands,  there 
were  2,562  Presbyterian  schools  from  kinder¬ 
garten  to  university  with  over  200,000 
scholars. 

What  is  the  purpose  of  these  schools?  The 
purpose  is  threefold: — direct  evangelism  of 
non-Christian  students,  the  Christian  educa¬ 
tion  of  the  children  of  the  Church  and  the 
training  of  Christian  leaders  in  the  life  and 
activities  of  the  countries  concerned. 

The  Assembly  will  be  happy  to  learn  that 
last  year  1,414  students  in  our  Christian 
schools  and  colleges  in  foreign  lands  were 
led  to  confess  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Saviour 
and  to  unite  with  the  Church  on  confession 
of  faith  in  Him.  Last  evening  you  heard  the 
wonderful  story  of  the  conversion  of  Miss 
Christiana  Tsai,  a  daughter  of  Christian 
China.  You  must  have  been  impressed  by 
her  statement  that  it  was  in  our  Presbyterian 
school  in  Nanking  that  she  first  heard  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  that  it  was  through  the 
influence  of  that  school  that  she  became  a 
Christian. 

The  people  of  all  lands  who  have  come  in 
contact  with  these  Christian  schools  need  no 
persuasion  as  to  the  value  of  the  schools  as 
evangelistic  agencies.  One  of  the  delegates 
to  this  Assembly,  the  Rev.  Frank  S.  Niles, 
of  Hwai  Yuen,  China,  is  the  Principal  of  a 
Boys  School  at  Hwai  Yuen.  One  day  last 
year  a  gun-boat  official  turned  up  at  the 
school  bringing  with  him  his  son,  a  very 
intelligent  boy.  The  father  asked  the  Prin- 

12 


cipal  of  the  school  to  examine  his  son.  Mr. 
Niles  told  him  that  it  was  useless  to  examine 
him,  for  even  if  he  should  pass  the  examina¬ 
tion  there  was  no  place  for  him  because  of 
crowded  conditions  in  the  school. 

Said  the  official,  “I  will  rent  a  house  in 
town  and  he  can  live  at  home.” 

“But,”  said  the  Principal,  “there  is  no 
desk.” 

“Ah,”  said  the  official,  “I  will  buy  a  desk.” 

“But  there  is  no  place  to  put  it  even  if  you 
do  buy  it,”  said  the  hard-hearted  Principal. 

“Well,  then,”  said  the  father,  “let  him  stand 
up  for  a  year.  I  have  already  heard  so  much 
about  the  goodness  of  the  Christian  Church; 
now,  let  some  of  that  goodness  shine  forth 
so  that  we  can  see  it.  Please  take  pity  on  my 
son  and  let  him  stay  and  learn.  Your  school 
is  the  only  school  that  I  know  of  where  I 
can  leave  my  son  to  be  educated  and  never 
worry  about  him.  I  want  him  to  grow  up 
to  be  a  Christian.” 

In  spite  of  this  appeal  it  was  necessary  to 
turn  the  boy  away,  and  he  was  the  fifty-first 
boy  who  had  had  to  pass  through  that  ex¬ 
perience  in  one  term  for  lack  of  room  in  the 
school. 

One  of  our  missionaries  in  Ningpo,  in 
writing  of  the  evangelistic  influence  of  her 
Boys’  School,  said,  “I  dread  to  turn  a  boy 
away  for  fear  it  may  mean  that  he  loses  his 
chance  of  finding  Christ.”  In  the  Presby¬ 
terian  Industrial  School  at  Yihsien,  China, 
28  boys  united  with  the  Church  on  one  Sun¬ 
day;  60  boys  and  students  of  the  Boys’ 
School  at  Ningpo  accepted  Christ  during  the 

13 


year,  and  the  school  this  past  year  has  broken 
records  in  attendance,  there  being  190  stu¬ 
dents  in  all  departments.  Last  Winter  a  series 
of  evangelistic  meetings  was  held  in  the  In¬ 
stitute  Ingles  in  Santiago,  Chile,  with  a 
Chilean  pastor  in  charge.  From  60  to  100 
boys  attended  these  daily  evangelistic  serv¬ 
ices,  and  62  boys  signed  cards  given  out  at 
the  close  of  the  services  and  promised  to  take 
Jesus  Christ  as  their  Saviour.  In  the  Girls’ 
School  at  Bangkok,  Siam,  a  very  strong  leader 
among  the  girls  of  the  graduating  class  de¬ 
cided  to  become  a  Christian.  She  had  been 
brought  to  Christ  as  the  result  of  the  daily 
prayers  of  the  five  Christian  girls  of  her 
class,  and  is  today  one  of  the  leaders  in 
Christian  work. 

About  forty  years  ago,  a  man  named  Li 
came  to  Peking  from  his  home  over  100  miles 
away  wheeling  his  five  year  old  daughter  on 
a  wheelbarrow,  to  have  her  educated  in  the 
Presbyterian  School.  One  of  the  missionaries 
wrote  recently  of  her  life  and  influence: 
“Although  she  was  too  young  to  come  in  as  a 
regular  pupil,  some  of  the  missionaries  took 
her  as  a  ward  and  brought  her  up.  From 
then  until  this  year  she  has  been  in  the  Mis¬ 
sion,  a  cultured,  capable  and  devout  woman, 
lately  the  Principal  of  the  Girls’  School  in 
Paotingfu.  Last  Spring,  when  she  decided 
to  go  into  Home  Mission  work  in  southwest 
China,  the  alumnae  and  students  of  the  school 
had  a  farewell  reception  for  her,  at  the  end 
of  which  they  had  Miss  Li  face  the  audience 
with  a  lighted  candle  in  each  hand.  Then 
the  alumnae  and  students  from  the  oldest  to 


14 


the  youngest  walked  past  her,  each  one  light¬ 
ing  a  candle  from  hers.  Thus  did  they 
symbolize  the  way  her  life  had  been  multb 
plied.  Toward  the  last  of  the  line.  Miss  Li 
added  to  the  symbol  by  modestly  suggesting 
that  the  little  girls  light  their  candles  from 
the  candles  of  the  older  girls.  Then,  still 
silently,  except  for  an  occasional  song  from 
various  classes  or  groups,  the  line  of  about 
200  girls  with  their  lights  filed  out  into  the 
darkness  of  the  Chinese  night/’ 

“AS  YE  GO,  PREACH ” 

Preach  in  isolated  and  lonely  places; 
preach  among  the  masses  of  India,  and  Africa, 
and  Korea;  preach  in  the  market-places  of 
the  great  cities;  preach  along  the  highways 
of  the  countries  of  the  world;  preach  by 
word  of  mouth,  by  written  word  or  by  the 
distribution  of  literature;  by  daily  walk  and 
conversation.  As  ye  go,  preach  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ.  In  fifteen  countries  of  the 
world  your  missionaries  are  obeying  this  in¬ 
struction  of  our  Lord. 

For  many  years  it  has  been  considered  in 
some  quarters  of  the  Mohammedan  world  as 
almost  impossible  to  win  converts  from  Islam 
to  Christianity,  but  this  past  year  65  con¬ 
verts  were  won  from  Mohammed  to  Christ  in 
the  great  Shrine  City  of  Meshed,  on  the  border 
of  Afghanistan,  where  are  perhaps  the  farthest 
removed  outposts  of  missionary  forces  in  the 
world.  Some  of  these  converts  are  already 
at  work  preaching  the  Gospel  themselves,  and 
all  over  the  Near  Eastern  world  converts  are 
being  won  to  Christianity  in  increasing  num¬ 
bers. 


15 


In  the  great  city  of  Canton  in  South  China, 
a  series  of  evangelistic  meetings  developed 
extraordinary  interest.  A  site  was  secured  in 
one  of  the  prominent  localities,  and  a  large 
mat  shed  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  $1,600, 
the  members  of  all  the  churches  freely  con¬ 
tributing.  Two  meetings  were  held  daily  for 
ten  days.  The  meeting  for  women  was  held 
at  two  o’clock,  and  at  this  service  more  than 
2,000  were  frequently  present.  In  the  even¬ 
ing  the  meeting  was  crowded  with  men, 
though  the  seating  capacity  was  almost  3,000. 
In  the  audience  were  officials,  scholars,  mer¬ 
chants,  seated  often  side  by  side  with  men 
of  laboring  classes.  No  distinction  in  class 
or  rank  was  made,  yet  in  no  instance  was 
there  the  slightest  evidence  of  any  resentment 
or  disorder.  The  preaching  was  entirely  by 
the  Chinese,  the  missionaries  aiding  in  every 
other  possible  way.  The  power  of  the 
Chinese  preachers  was  greatly  in  evidence. 
Among  those  who  gave  great  assistance  were 
the  students  from  the  Canton  Union  Theo¬ 
logical  College.  At  these  meetings  more  than 
100,000  persons  were  present,  and  2,900 
signed  cards  expressing  determination  to  be¬ 
come  Christians.  More  than  1,000  were  or¬ 
ganized  into  Bible  Classes.  In  Canton  are 
some  large  department  stores  having  hun¬ 
dreds  of  clerks.  From  one  of  these,  130  men 
came  forward  to  make  confession  of  faith. 
The  entire  cost  of  the  meetings,  $6,000,  was 
oversubscribed,  leaving  $1,500  in  the  treas¬ 
ury  for  a  similar  series  in  the  future. 

In  Japan  22  business  men  were  baptized 
at  their  places  of  business.  In  Chile  700 

16 


persons  were  converted  to  Christ  in  a  great 
Easter  Evangelistic  Campaign — the  largest 
number  of  decisions  ever  made  in  an  equal 
length  of  time  since  our  work  began  in  Chile 
fifty  years  ago. 

A  Presbyterian  missionary  in  the  city  of 
Etawah,  in  India,  tells  the  following  story  of 
the  power  of  the  Gospel: 

“Two  culprits  in  the  district  jail  sentenced 
to  be  hanged.  They  were  face  to  face  with 
death.  In  all  of  their  lives  they  had  not 
given  a  particle  of  thought  to  religion  or  to 
their  future.  When  their  sinful  condition 
was  pointed  out  to  them  they  sighed  for  the 
cleansing  of  the  waters  of  the  Ganges  and 
Jumna.  When  the  minister  proved  these  to 
be  futile  they  inquired  the  way  to  be  saved, 
and  were  told  to  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  minister  repeated  to  them  a  de¬ 
scription  of  Christ’s  abounding  love  and  of 
what  He  has  accomplished  for  sinners.  They 
were  moved  to  tears,  and  were  won  to  Christ 
even  in  their  dying  hour.  The  next  day  there 
were  a  few  people  from  the  city  to  see  the 
two  men  hanged,  and  the  two  culprits — re¬ 
deemed  of  the  Lord — declared  from  the 
scaffold  their  faith, — the  peace  and  the  cour¬ 
age  they  had  to  face  death  as  they  had  with 
them  the  One  Who  had  crossed  the  river  of 
death. 

A  Hindu  engineer  who  was  present  was 
greatly  touched  and  sought  from  the  minister 
the  way  he  also  could  with  ease  of  mind 
meet  death.” 

In  hearing  this  story  one  is  reminded  of 
the  words  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  the 

17 


story  of  the  stoning  of  Stephen, — “The  wit¬ 
nesses  laid  down  their  clothes  at  a  young 
man’s  feet,  whose  name  was  Saul.” 

We  close  with  the  story  of  Tokichi  Ishii, 
one  of  the  most  notorious  criminals  in  the 
Japanese  Empire,  for  twenty-nine  years  a 
burglar,  and  a  murderer  condemned  to  life 
imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  at  Tokyo. 
During  his  imprisonment,  in  order  to  save  the 
life  of  an  innocent  fellow  prisoner  who  had 
been  condemned  for  the  murder  of  a  geisha 
girl  with  whom  he  was  in  love,  Tokichi  Ishii 
himself  confessed  to  the  murder  and  thus 
brought  on  himself  sentence  of  execution. 
At  one  place  in  his  journal  we  read,  “One  day 
a  person  by  the  name  of  Miss  West  came 
purposely  to  visit  me  and  talk  to  me  about 
Jesus  Christ.  .  „  .  Although  I  thought  it 
very  kind  of  Miss  West  to  come  to  talk  to 
me,  I  did  not  pay  much  attention  to  what  she 
said.  Of  course  I  behaved  with  decorum  as 
the  occasion  demanded.  These  visits  con¬ 
tinued  from  time  to  time.” 

“The  person  named  Miss  West,”  to  whom 
Tokichi  Ishii  refers  in  his  journal  is  Miss 
Annie  B.  West,  one  of  your  Presbyterian  mis¬ 
sionaries,  who,  for  thirty-nine  years  with  con¬ 
spicuous  devotion,  great  consecration  and 
power  and  success  has  been  making  Christ 
known  to  the  people  of  the  Japanese  Empire. 
Further  on  in  the  journal  Tokichi  Ishii 
writes: 

“Miss  West  came  to  see  me  today  and  I 
was  even  more  pleased  than  usual  with  her 
visit  as  I  had  not  seen  either  of  my  friends 
for  some  time.  .  .  .  She  asked  mp  to  re* 

18 


member  especially  the  words  of  the  twenty- 
third  Psalm.  ...  I  was  so  grateful  for 
Miss  West’s  visit  that  I  prayed  after  she  left 
me:  ‘Lord  Jesus,  I  thank  Thee  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  that  Thou  hast  answered 
all  the  prayers  I  have  ever  made  to  Thee. 
In  the  coming  days  when  enemies  attack  my 
soul  from  all  quarters,  lend  me  Thy  power 
to  conquer  them  all’.” 

In  his  prison  cell,  on  reading  the  story 
of  the  death  of  our  Lord  on  the  Cross,  Tokichi 
Ishii  gave  his  heart  to  Christ.  Shortly  be¬ 
fore  he  died  he  gave  utterance  to  two  extra¬ 
ordinary  expressions.  The  first  one  was,  “No 
Christian  is  ever  afraid  of  death.”  Dr.  John 
Kelman,  who  wrote  the  Foreword  to  the  story 
of  the  life  of  this  extraordinary  man,  re¬ 
marked  that  the  only  Christians  Tokichi  Ishii 
had  ever  known  were  the  two  women  who  told 
him  of  Jesus  in  his  cell,  Miss  Annie  B.  West 
and  Miss  Caroline  McDonald.  His  last 
words,  which  are  in  the  form  of  a  poem,  are 
as  follows: 

“My  name  is  defiled, 

My  body  dies  in  prison, 

But  my  soul  purified 

Today  returns  to  the  City  of  God.” 

Any  Church  which,  through  its  missionaries, 
can  win  to  Christ  this  notorious  criminal  of 
Japan,  can,  with  the  power  of  Christ  win  the 
Japanese  Empire,  and  the  missionaries  of 
such  a  Church  deserve  the  prayerful  and 
loyal  support  of  the  Church  which  sent  them 
out. 

Stand  by  your  missionaries.  They  have 
gone  out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  leaving 

19 


their  country,  their  homes  and  many  of  the 
comforts  and  privileges  of  life  which  you 
enjoy.  Today  nearly  sixteen  hundred  of 
them  are  preaching  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in 
obedience  to  the  Great  Commission,  and  their 
labors,  which  are  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord, 
are  being  blessed  by  Him  with  ever  encourag¬ 
ing  results.  Stand  by  your  missionaries. 
They  are  giving  their  lives  for  the  faith  in 
which  you  believe. 


20 


DATE  DUE 

1  im  i 

.’0 
-  -f 

GAYLORD 

P*l  NT  CO  5N  U  S.  A  . 

